Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Day 9: Leaving the Outback

In the distance you can see Kata Tjutu and the Ayers Rock Resort, an oasis in the desert.


>> ALL DAY 9 PHOTOS POSTED - CLICK HERE TO VIEW!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Day 3: So much to see in Sydney, so little time....

Today started with an incredible experience - climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The view from the summit was breathtaking. The whole trek lasted about 3 hours (1.5 hours up to the summit, and 1.5 hours back down again). Mom was watching from the hotel window with binoculars! But alas, she couldn't pick me out of the ants climbing up and down the bridge's arch:-)




The weather has been absolutely gorgeous and although it's technically still winter here, Sydney recorded it's warmest August day in history this week in the upper 70s.

After the bridge climb, Mom and I tried to squeeze in a lot of last minute sightseeing (and shopping). First stop was Sydney Tower - which is (or was) the highest observation deck in the southern hemisphere at 1,000ft. Next, we took the monorail over to Darling Harbour for shopping and dinner. Here's a photo of Darling Harbour after dark - you can see the Sydney Tower in the skyline.


Sadly, just a few nightime shots of Sydney Harbour from the hotel room window before saying goodbye to Sydney and heading off to Cairns tomorrow...



>> ALL DAY 3 PHOTOS POSTED - CLICK HERE TO VIEW!

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Day 2: The Blue Mountains



Featherdale Wildlife Park


Woke up this morning at 5:15am... yes, shocking I know! The upside was that I got to watch the sunrise over Sydney Harbour which was a beautiful site to see.

Today was a jam packed day which started off with a visit to Featherdale Wildlife Park. Featherdale was wonderful. With more than 2,000 animals - many of which roam free through the park - it was a hands-on experience. I even got to hand feed kangaroos and pet a koala!

Here are some sites from the Featherdale Wildlife Park:

CRIKEY!




Mama & Baby





>> ALL DAY 2 PHOTOS POSTED - CLICK HERE TO VIEW!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Day 1: Lions and Tigers and Koalas... Oh My!

We arrived in Sydney this morning after a long 14.5 hour flight that took off an hour late. But all in all, the flight went well - so well in fact, we hit the ground running. Of course by early evening, things caught up to us and I'll be lucky if this post makes much sense, so bear with me.

First things first... we're staying at the Shangri-la Sydney Hotel and our room has a spectacular harbour view room of both the Sydney Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Here's a shot I snapped from our window:


As soon as we dropped out bags we made our way down to The Rocks for a quick lunch and then walked over to Circular Quay to catch a ferry over to Taronga Zoo where we spent the afternoon. The great thing about Taronga is that it sits across the harbour from the city, so in addition to seeing "lions and tigers and koalas", the views of the Sydney skyline were amazing. Here's a few of my favorie pics from today at the zoo:



After the zoo, we went back to the hotel to get ready for a performance at the Sydney Opera House. We went and saw Puccini's "Il Trittico". It was really cool to be inside the Opera House seeing a live performance and not just admiring the structure from the outside.

To top off the night, as we left the opera we noticed lot's of people looking up and discovered that tonight in this part of the world there was a total lunar eclipse. The entire moon was glowing orangish-red - such an awesome, unexpecteded site to see! And a great way to wrap up Day 1.

Tomorrow is an all day excursion to the Blue Mountains. More to come...

P.S. Happy Birthday Brianna & Stasia!!!

>> ALL DAY 1 PHOTOS POSTED - CLICK HERE TO VIEW!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Australia: 15 Days & Counting!

On August 25th, Mom & I will be embarking on our Australian adventure! While we're there exploring, I'll be blogging to journal our experiences. It's going to be a jam packed two weeks - we hope you'll stop by daily and come along with us on this amazing journey!

So what can you expect? Good question - I'm not sure myself! But here's an overview of our itinerary. Our first stop after leaving Tampa will be Los Angeles en route to Sydney. While in Sydney we'll be taking a day trip to the Blue Mountains before heading to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. During our time in Cairns we'll also be visiting Kuranda and the rainforest. From Cairns we're off to the "Red Center" to explore mystical, aboriginal Uluru (Ayers Rock). Then back to Sydney. Back to Los Angeles. And finally back to Tampa. I'm tired already